Debbie Ducommun, known as “The Rat Lady,” is internationally
recognized as an expert on rats. She has worked in the animal care industry
since 1977 and has a background in animal training, nutrition, and animal
health care. She graduated from CaliforniaStateUniversity
at Chico with honors and holds
a bachelor of arts degree in animal behavior.

Debbie "The Rat Lady” Ducommun with hairless rat Moses.

Debbie has had numerous articles published in national animal magazines
and currently writes a monthly column on small pets for Pet Business
magazine. She founded The Rat Fan Club in 1992 and the non-profit Rat
Assistance & Teaching Society in 2003.Debbie is also author of the book Rats! A Fun and Care Book published
by Bowtie Press in 1998 and revised in 2002 as Rats, Practical, Accurate Advice from the Expert, the booklet Rat Health Care, and the book The Complete Guide to Rat Training,
published by TFH Publications in 2008.

Debbie has promoted rats on television and radio including appearances
on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Howie Mandel Show, To Tell The
Truth, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Discovery Channel’s Nigel’s Wild Wild World, and Animal
Planet’s The Most Extreme: Cheats, and some other
shows. She was a technical consultant on the Pixar movie Ratatouille (you can see her name at
the end of the credits under Special Thanks, center column, third name
down.)

Debbie has been invited to speak about rats at numerous Pet Expos, and
she makes frequent presentations about rats at schools, libraries,
kids’ clubs and to other groups.

Debbie lives in Chico, CA
with her husband Larry and a varying number of rats.

Here in her own words, is the story of The Rat Fan Club.

I have always loved animals, and have always wanted to work with them. I
have worked as a veterinary assistant, dog obedience instructor, and humane
society manager. In 1985 I left my job as manager of our local humane
society to care for the laboratory rats in the psychology department at the
California State University, Chico. As a girl, I’d had pet rats and
fondly recalled their loving personalities and ability to do tricks.

Before I took the job in the lab I really had to do some soul-searching,
since I would be involved with experimentation and euthanizing large
numbers of rats. I finally decided since the rats were going to be there
anyway, they deserved to have someone who loved rats caring for them.
I’m very glad I did, since not only was I able to make some
significant improvements in their care, it led me to establish The Rat Fan
Club.

In my job of caring for the rats, I became known as “The Rat
Lady,” a title I wear with pride. Rat owners consulted me about the
behavior and health of their rats. At the time, there was only one pet care
book about rats, and it had limited information. I realized there was a
need for more complete information about rats as pets. About this same
time, I began free-lance writing so I decided to write a rat care book. I
sent queries to book publishers but got only rejection slips.

In 1991, I decided since no publishers were interested, I would try publishing
something myself. But instead of a book, I decided a newsletter would be
more manageable. I tried to drum up interest in a rat newsletter with a
notice at the end of a magazine article about rats I had written. I was
disappointed when only eight responses showed up. But I was determined not
to give up. I knew there were rat owners out there who needed information.

I decided to start The Rat Fan Club and proceeded to publish issue #1 of
the Rat Report in June 1992. I sent out press releases which led to
articles about The Rat Fan Club appearing in several major U.S. newspapers,
including the Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Daily News. Subscriptions
built slowly but steadily. It was so exciting to watch the membership climb
from 10 to 25 to 100!

By February 1993 subscriptions had climbed to over 200. I started
getting requests from my members for rat design merchandise such as
t-shirts, notecards, and jewelry, which were hard to find. So I decided to
start a catalog with both the limited merchandise I could find, and items
that I designed and produced myself. The response was great enough that I
expanded the Rat-alog in 1994 and added other items, such as a calendar,
poster, watch, and keychains, as well as toys and treats for rats. I have
added new items every year and now offer over 100. I began advertising the
Rat-alog in a catalog of catalogs, which promoted The Rat Fan Club to a
wide range of people.

In August 1995 membership in the club rose to 280 and although it did
not bring in enough money to live on, with the support of my husband, I
quit my job at the university in order to spend more time on The Rat Fan
Club and publish a booklet, Rat Health Care. This booklet received
excellent reviews from both rat owners and veterinarians. I have updated it
about once a year.

Finally, in 1996 I received an offer from Bowtie Press to publish a rat
care book and my book, titled Rats! A Fun and Care Book, was
published in 1998. I’m actually glad I didn’t write a book
earlier because it would have been woefully inadequate. Only by sharing
information with Rat Fan Club members and others has my knowledge of rats
increased to the point where I now feel competent to write a good rat care
book.

The Rat-alog continued to grow and in 2000 I felt it had
grown to the point where it was taking too much time away from the club and
other projects I wanted to accomplish.In August 2000 I sold the Rat-alog to RFC member Karen Yang.

In 2003 I decided to expand our reach by forming a
non-profit organization, the Rat Assistance & Teaching Society, with
the goal of educating non-rat owners, especially veterinarians, pet shops,
and shelters, about rats.For
more information about this endeavor click
here.I became the
President and began editing the RATS quarterly newsletter, Rat-a-tat Chat.

In 2004-2007 I wrote a new book about training rats, The Complete Guide to Rat Training,
and TFH Publications, Inc. published it in 2008.

In 2007 I realized I was trying to do too much and decided, after 15
years, to stop doing the Rat Report and
make The Rat Fan Club a free online club.With the growth of information on
the internet, the number of subscribers had fallen to just over 200
anyway.At one point The Rat
Fan Club had close to 600 members in 12 countries. My goal in founding The
Rat Fan Club was to promote rats as companion animals and provide
information on their proper care. I’m very pleased that I have been
able to work toward this goal and to see the popularity of rats grow
tremendously. It has been a labor of love, and a labor I’m very proud
of!I believe that working for
the benefit of rats and their owners is God’s purpose for me here on
earth.